


Counter Rigged

by Spudato



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, Second Person Narration, shenanigans in local arcade leads to ice cream and public declarations of love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-24
Updated: 2017-06-24
Packaged: 2018-11-18 13:30:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11291655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spudato/pseuds/Spudato
Summary: Prompt fill: [saying you love me] loudly so that everyone can hear.Nora feels like it's a lucky day for her - so much so she wants to try and win at the claw machine on Vale's boardwalk. Since everyone's busy, it's up to you to prevent too much property damage if it all ends up going awry. Which it will, because everyone knows these things are cheaters.





	Counter Rigged

You’d seen the claw machine before - it’s hard not to have, really, since it’s huge and sticks right out of the arcade on the boardwalk. Plenty of kids like to try their luck and plenty more have come away empty-handed, but you’ve never seen reason to have a go yourself. Some of the toys are cute, sure, but even if you  _ could _ get one out of confinement (which is unlikely anyway since all these machines are, in Jaune’s own frustrated words,  _ completely fricking rigged up to the armpits _ ) you’d have no need for it anyway. Your dorm room only has so much space to offer when it’s shared between four people and besides, you don’t even want to imagine trying to get all your stuff back home to Mistral as it stands right now.

So there’s a claw machine on the boardwalk that you’ve never had any interest in, but then Nora decides she’s having a really lucky streak after beating Ruby to the last of the morning pancakes and she declares she’s gonna win something this time. Even if this is, like, the fiftieth try! She’s feeling good about it! And Ren doesn’t want to go because he wants to study (he says, but you think he probably has other plans that include throwing an impromptu congratulatory/consolation party depending on Nora’s success) and Jaune’s been dragged off to spar one-on-one with Ruby (an idea that, quite frankly, brought tears to his eyes) so it’s down to you to chaperone and make sure any frustration doesn’t end up with a fist-shaped hole in the glass.

Besides, it’s a nice day for a walk anyway.

So the pair of you board the afternoon airship down into Vale because Nora is kind of in love with the very concept of Beacon having its own airship service just to ferry kids around in, and you both end up looking down to all the people on the ground and start to make up stories about what they might be doing, or going, or whatever.

“That guy down there-” Nora prods at the glass, leaving a fingerprint on the otherwise pristine surface. “He and his dog are vigilantes at night. He chases the criminals and his dog cuts ‘em off and bites at their  _ ankles _ .”

You laugh airily, mostly because you’re thinking of Zwei and also thinking that it’d still be the  _ least _ weird thing this city has to offer, if it were true. “Okay. I think… I think that person there?” You motion towards a fisherman at the end of a narrow, wonky dock. “Years ago, a fish stole his left boot and he’s still fishing for revenge.”

Nora gasps so loudly it’s almost like she just got shot. “And! And and  _ and _ , whilst fishing today a second fish will steal his  _ right boot _ .”

A Yangism pops into your head, and you grin. “Leaving him without a leg to stand on, hm?”

“ _ Pyrrha _ .” Nora’s delighted, and her freckled cheeks are pink with it. “You’ve been hanging out with Yang too much!”

Guilty as charged, so you just laugh again, the airship humming as it turns around to dock below.

Once both of you are back on solid ground Nora takes point, leading you through crowds of people with only minimal amounts of shoulder-bashing, but you still follow with strings of apologies anyway. At some point Nora’s hand finds yours and she pulls you along easily, feet thudding along as sandy tarmac turns to wooden slats, and the crowds taper off a little until you can easily swerve around those slower than Nora.

Just over the salty tang of the air and the rhythm of the waves beneath your feet comes a sweetness of ice cream and the chiptune notes of music, and when Nora lets go of your hand to enter a even faster sprint you know the arcade must be just a few meters away. So, you slow down a touch, able to see Nora’s bright head of orange hair as she bobs in front of the machine. Even though you’re walking at a pretty decent pace she still waves you over, starting to pretend to tug you over with some invisible rope when that fails to speed you up.

“C’mon Pyrrha! You’ve gotta be my witness to my victory!”

Your eyeroll would make Weiss proud, but you finally jog over until you stand side-by-side, looking into the glass box as Nora presses her face against it.

“Oh man, what should I go for? That bear is  _ super duper cute _ , but that kitty is so- oh! Pyrrha, they have  _ sloths _ !”

“I see it.” True to her word there’s a few fuzzy, sleepy sloths scattered amongst the other prizes, and you already know she’s committed to them. Without another word she’s pulling out her wallet, emblazoned with the Beacon logo, and it jingles with change.

A Lien goes in, and chirping music starts to play over low-quality speakers. Nora takes control of the crane like a seasoned pro - which she kind of  _ is _ by this point - and you’re content to lean against the machine as the crane practically crawls into position above a sloth coloured an eye-searingly bright shade of pink.

“Here it comes, here it comes-” Nora’s chanting under her breath as she drops the crane, and there’s a moment where you hold your breath as the claws tuck beneath the prize, starting to slowly lift it from the other toys.

Judging by how a dog walking by with its owner just turned its head to you, Nora’s squeal of excitement was beyond your hearing range.

The claw takes its sweet time dragging back over to the bucket, though. Even you’re feeling an infectious itch of impatience as the sloth gets closer and closer to the bucket… and then, hardly an inch away, it slips just a little out of its grip.

“No!  _ Ren Junior _ !” And, just like that, the claw gives up entirely and the sloth falls, falls, falls, all the way back with the other prizes just in time for the music to stop and the crane to slide back to its starting position.

You’ve never heard Nora make such a horrified cry before and maybe you should comfort her, but the fact she’d already given the sloth a name just makes you snort, and then snigger, and when Nora’s wide eyes slide from Ren Junior over to you it’s inevitable that you’ll just start losing it. So you do, hands on your knees as you bend over with a cackle that’s practically bursting from your chest in a rush to get out into the world.

“Pyrrha, my child just  _ died a death _ and you’re  _ laughing at me? _ ” She must know she’s just making you laugh harder, because when she grasps your shoulders to pull you upright she’s smiling too, even if she’s trying her hardest to keep it down. “The great and wondrous claw deemed my only child  _ not worthy. _ ”

You’re going to get hiccups at this rate, so you try and take a breath, swallowing it down. “I- hehe- I’m s-sorry… I just-” Your words fall into a long snort, body shaking, so Nora lets go and gets out another Lien, shoving it through the slot to start the music up again.

“No sympathy in my time of plight on this team… never any darn sympathy…”

Still, it soon proves that the first attempt had also been Nora’s most successful. The second attempt misses Ren Junior completely, and the third sees the claw not even manage to get a decent grasp. The fourth and fifth see Ren Junior get lifted a little before falling back down, and the sixth sees the claw stoke the fuzzy fur like some weirdly affectionate four fingered monster before rising back into place.

Nora’s too distressed to try a seventh attempt, your claims that seven is a lucky number aside.

“He’s lost to me!” Her broken sobbing is very realistic, you have to admit. “His father will never know what he looked like!”

The people in the arcade are also looking pretty distressed, so you pat her back and tug her away from the machine with gentle hands. “You can try again another day, you know.”

A sniffle, resigned. “But what if someone else gets him first?”

Patting her again, you glance towards the end of the docks, noting the ice cream stand you’d seen - well,  _ smelled _ \- before. “Listen. Ren Junior might be a lost cause, but you know what isn’t?”

“What?”

“Ice cream. Which is always accessible even in the dead of winter.”

Just like that, Nora’s eyes light up and her persona drops off as easily as a coat, so you continue. “If you go to that parlour over there and get something, I’ll join you in a second? I promised Ruby to get one of those silly hats with the drink holders for Weiss.”

“Sure thing!” Just like that Nora’s off like a bullet down the boardwalk, and with a hum you turn on your heel and head back towards the arcade.

Maybe it’s not Nora’s lucky day, but with a bit of help from a certain semblance it might just be yours.

 

* * *

When you enter the parlour not a few minutes later, Nora’s got a chocolate wafer cone with more scoops towered on it than physically, gravitationally possible. Your hands are behind your back, but Nora doesn’t notice when there’s a scoop of marshmallow chocolate bigger than your fist calling for her, so she doesn’t even really glance your way when you slide into the seat next to her.

“Having fun?”

“Mm-hm!” A dotted napkin comes up to wipe off a bit of ice cream just out of reach of her tongue, and she grins. “They’ve got butterscotch there if you wanna get one too!”

You mentally calculate how much sparring you’ll have to do to burn it off, and find it’s probably worth it. “I will in a moment. I was going to tell you this weird thing that happened when I went back-”

“Weird? Weird  _ how _ ? Like a Grimm rose out of the ocean wearing a hat kind of weird? Or just you saw a woman with three legs kind of weird?”

Privately, you wonder which outclasses the other. “More like as I was walking I heard this little voice crying your name, and when I looked down I happened to find this.” From behind your back you pull out Ren Junior, in all his fluffy pink glory, and Nora just stares open-mouthed, heedless of the dripping ice cream that’s falling onto the table. And then, she turns around sharply, tapping the shoulder of the person sat at the table over.

“Excuse me- hi, yeah, sorry, can you hold this real quickly? Thanks.” Nora turns back to you, now with both hands free, and she cleans them on the napkin seconds before launching herself at you like a cannonball with a face-splitting grin and roar of your name.

“Pyrrha!  _ Pyrrha! _ ”

She’s heavy enough that your chair falls back and ends up leaning against the wall in a way that makes you very nervous, but she’s squirming and hugging you until your ribs are creaking and she’s laughing too, Ren Junior squashed up where you threw your arms around her in a panic. The guy holding the ice cream is waiting patiently with half a grin, but you shoot him an apologetic smile anyway and wonder for a moment if this is a place you can ever return to.

When Nora pulls away just long enough for your chair to  _ thud _ back onto four legs she takes your hands in hers, squeezing until your knuckles pop, and her face settles into an expression so serious it feels like you’re being proposed to.

“Pyrrha, I’ve not said this enough, but I want everyone here- _everyone_!” The shout attracts pretty much all the attention of the parlour, and you blush so hard you can tell it’s matching your hair. “I want everyone to know that this woman right here, that this perfect teammate? This _brilliant_ friend? I love her more than anyone in the _world_!” Then, she pauses, blue eyes falling to the prize trapped between your palms. “‘Cept maybe for Ren Junior.”

You don’t even bother trying to hide your laughter this time. Some things are just too impossible to stop.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to tinybroodinggay at Tumblr for requesting this! You can also send prompts to faunusrights.tunglr.hell if you'd like to send your own B)


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